In a major move that could change the face of enterprise software offerings and IT services, the German enterprise software provider SAP SE has formed a strategic alliance global management and technology services firm Accenture.

Under a pact, SAP SE and Accenture have agreed to work jointly in the area of development of core and industry platform and go-to-market for SAP S/4 HANA.

This technology and business collaboration intends to accelerate development of SAP S/4HANA as well as industry and line-of-business solutions, with a view to simplifying and fast-tracking customers' journeys to digital businesses, a company statement said.

"This strategic agreement to further advance our collaboration and integration builds on the success of the existing Accenture and SAP Business Solutions Group," said Paul Daugherty, CTO - Accenture.

"Accenture developers and industry experts are now working side by side with SAP, providing us with unique input, insight and development opportunities with SAP S/4HANA,"added Daugherty.

Further, "For example, our teams in Germany and Shanghai are helping SAP with the design and build of the SAP S/4HANA Finance solution. In addition, we plan to involve clients as part of a broader co-innovation strategy to ensure that we are optimizing our development efforts for SAP S/4HANA to meet their needs and help them stay competitive across industries and markets," he explained.

In addition, both companies will work to build a unique go-to-market approach that will incorporate a joint value-proposition capabilities and collaborative delivery efforts.

This will help to develop differentiated solutions with flexible delivery options for bundled industry cloud deployment.

The joint initiative will be backed back by co- investments in resources including dedicated professionals to offer more value to mutual clients.

Key highlights of this partnership include, augmenting solutions using both companies' industry expertise and extensive product knowledge, reducing time to market by leveraging Accenture's delivery expertise for core and industry cloud solutions development for SAP S/4HANA.

New apps for SAP S/4HANA Finance using the SAP Fiori to bring an enhanced and simplified user experience with increased productivity across finance functions. Also, pushing the SAP S/4HANA adoption and reducing clients' time to digital value by aligning and scaling joint go-to-market efforts.

"We look forward to working with Accenture to drive digital transformation for businesses with even simpler solutions that accelerate time to value. Our comprehensive portfolio allows companies to successfully tackle the diverse challenges of the digital economy across the whole value chain, today and beyond, and make them ready for the future," added Leukert.